Rode Island Airport Corporation CEO Kevin Dillon said yesterday that he thought in originating the service, Southwest is looking to extending its connections to the West Coast.

He said that airline representatives told him they were “pleased” with the advance bookings for the Denver, as well as the Fort Meyers service. Dillon said the Fort Meyers service is slated to start Feb. 12.

Actually Southwest will be adding an additional Chicago Midway flight and another Baltimore flight in the coming months as well as Denver and the peak season Ft. Myers flight. Southwest cutbacks at Phildelphia so far includes, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Manchester, Providence and sharply reducing Boston. Other routes that remain will be thinned out as well as Philadelphia, a longtime USAirways hub, has proved to be a very expensive airport at which to operate for Southwest with lots of costly weather equipment and air traffic delays. The issue is a Philadelphia one but if you're an avowed Green Airport enemy, you will surely pounce on the negative and the take-away.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Knowing54

Losing Philadelphia sucks if your only a Southwest customer (as I am) and need to go there!! You do not have to be an enemy(?R.L.) of Green to be upset!!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

RichardLangseth

Yes, latitude41, PHL (Philadelphia) is a very expensive airport and the airlines are officially threatening to bolt because the plan is to triple the costs to the airlines with a huge new runways project. If USAirways pulls out of PHL like they did in Pittsburgh several years ago, passenger counts at T.F. Green could drop some more. This is a hub and spoke business and when a spoke (Green) loses a hub (PHL) it is almost impossible to keep many of the non-Rhode Island Green passengers from going to Logan or Bradley in Connecticut.

A year has gone by since the following article and things are much worse for the airport administration. USAirways is now threatening to pull out of PHL and Southwest is cutting way back. T.F. Green faces a similar threat if the expansion here goes forward.

Published Dec. 3, 2010 by Philadelphia Inquirer:

A $5.3 billion expansion of Philadelphia's airport - which the Nutter (Philadelphia Mayor) administration sees as vital to the region's growth - is being met with concerns from two airlines, and some nearby neighbors in Tinicum Township.

Those concerns, presented with support from Delaware County officials and soon-to-be U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, were expressed clearly Thursday at a (Philadelphia) City Council committee hearing.

US Airways Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. object to costs they will bear to pay for the expansion, and Tinicum residents are fuming over property that will be lost to a portion of the development.

"US Airways supports the concept of growth and long-term planning at PHL. However, we believe that premature construction of a new runway will make PHL a less economically viable airport and US Airways a less economically viable airline," US Airways' vice president for corporate real estate, Michael Minerva, wrote July 29 to Mark Gale, the airport's chief executive officer. US Airways is Philadelphia's biggest carrier.

Minerva said a new runway alone would not greatly alleviate delays in takeoffs and landings "until there is a solution to local airspace congestion." Philadelphia is in the busy Northeast air corridor.